Chapter 7: Stay Away From the Light

Kazuma rose in bed as he realized they'd fallen asleep rather carelessly. If they're goal was to be restless that had merely lasted for as long as they'd teased each other; although Ayano never meant to tease him. Her actions and responses alone got enough out of him; although earlier they had been restless, now they'd have to stay awake entirely. She had been right, mixing business with pleasure was going to be complicated, but it was workable. He looked over at her sleeping. He'd give her a few.

He went to the bathroom to splash some water on himself. He had to wake her, in the end, it really wasn't a resort stay; instead of sleeping after they caught the demon they'd slept before so now they'd have to suck it up and stay up until dawn.

"Ayano?" He called into the other room.

He heard a grunted murmur from her. He laughed a bit. He'd have to come in there wouldn't he, which means he'd get the rage full on. That should be fun.

"Ayano we have to get up-" He left the bathroom to find that she wasn't there anymore.

"Ayano!" His voice got gruff and strained. Something felt off – definitely a presence but what was Ayano doing going after it? Or did something take her?

He looked to the window. Opened…

He peered down. It was only a short jump from the few stories, nothing Ayano couldn't handle, but on the other hand, why wouldn't she have told him? They were past being wreckless; he was sure that had ended with her at the lake, so what had lured her off into the night? It was all forest up here.

He grabbed his shirt quickly and leapt off the window ledge to the ground.

He moved fast into the trees. He was getting closer. It wasn't as powerful as he expected; perhaps the demon was hidden as something else? It was funny, she wished to use Umiko as a lure, and now she was one herself. If he went above the trees he might grab the attention off of her…but he wasn't going to let Ayano become a victim either.

That's when he saw her. The faint strands of red hair moving past a few trees to the left ahead. He hid behind a large evergreen to watch.

She seemed like she was in some kind of daze. Had it been purposeful that Ayano was targeted? Or only that he was out of the room? Perhaps her strong spiritual energy and unique red hair was too much to pass up… however it was strange that he'd been passed up before when they were sleeping.

He crept a bit further to see that a small stream of light, wispy, like a firefly with a green spirit tail was leading her forward. Perhaps that was it…

He had been right: Soul snatchers, sometimes referred to as Soul Collectors. Not often were they caught in the act so blatantly either, so rare people rarely ever had a name or a grudge for them alone. He called them Anglers when they appeared like this, but he'd known them to take many forms. They weren't so much a full demon as a partial one; one that was either summoned or used by another demon or someone who had enough knowledge to control them; they were like a type of dark spiritual energy that could be controlled. The more powerful though, the more they took shapes of things in reality and thus dangerous in the prey of those alive; instead of just a substance, they become lures enticing their prey with something to draw them out. Who ever was controlling this one seemed to decide this was the best form for it.

Perhaps the appearance of an aural light wasn't out of place in a wood where a firefly might appear…not that it mattered. It seemed to be really quite convincing as a lure; this wasn't a more powerful one. It wasn't just substance or plasma; it worked for something. Something had summoned it but not conjoined with its power. Something was receiving it's stolen souls.

Which meant that the rest of it was here somewhere; this small light and aural tail wisping ahead of Ayano was not all of it. It was pulling her into the trees to take her soul, but useful as it would be to follow it completely and let her soul lead them to it's maker, that couldn't happen.

They'd have to figure it out after. The only reason this kind of spiritual energy is never blamed is because normally some bigger demon is nearby, or some idiot user of modern magic decides to use it for selfish needs. Hopefully it was the first not the latter. He really didn't want to deal with any of that kind anymore…he'd hoped he'd left large magical organizations and their idiocy to the past.

He moved forward slowly; he suspected the end was coming soon to be out so far into the thick of the woods. That's when he swore he heard a rustle beside him in the bushes.

He used his wind power to slice open the large shrub beside him, and found nothing there. But he had sensed something. Was it possible he wasn't alone?

He looked back to where Ayano was to find that she wasn't there. How did they move so quickly forward in that moment? Or was that shrub a diversion? Or the terrible coincidence of a rabbit appearing at an inconvenient time?

Kazuma used his wind powers to get a better look from higher up but he'd lost important time. The trees were damn thick around this place, and now he'd showed himself; any chance of finding the real perpetrator lied on whether or not this demon was ballsy. He noticed a faint glow of light, but it might already be too late…

Meanwhile all the lights had converged into a glowing ball of energy, and as it seemed to back up in front of her, like a snake, rearing it's head before the strike.

The ball of energy went pummeling forward; it would move through her and steal her soul in a flash if it hit her at that rate. This was no firefly; it would move right though her and then it would leave for the summoner.

He'd seen the light grow and finally found her. From up here his wind perhaps could set it off aim but it was so close to her already; her spiritual energy was bleeding from her body.

"NERHU, Agual blast !"

Suddenly a rush of water moved towards Ayano and the Angler, which seemed to force, the stream of eerie greenish light into smaller bits.

Kazuma looked over and noticed Umiko had appeared. Was it possible she had been following Ayano too? Perhaps she was the noise in the bushes earlier? But that wouldn't make much sense if that were true…why would she need to hide? All the same, her seemingly wreckless instinct to continue to kill …or destroy rather the Angler energy suggested she knew nothing of the fact that another was controlling it. Or that another demon spirit was likely near by.

"I'm killing this one, I call shots. Here first, and I'm going to do the honors." Umiko said.

"Fair enough." Kazuma's inclinations seemed right. "If you think you can handle it."

Kazuma instead went to Ayano who was lying on the ground, somewhat wet from the attack. Perhaps it was best to let Umiko take this one over.

He left with Ayano and brought her back to the room. A few moments later he noticed she was a bit more herself.

"I can't believe she got me wet…" She asked as she moaned beside him, a towel draped around her.

"You remember?"

"Part's I do actually…"

"You could tell when that thing was drawing you in? You know not all Anglers do that…some of them just consume in one go…I guess maybe they should be called Takers… what was it like?"

"You really need to work on your names." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Awful. It's like I knew I was moving towards it but I couldn't stop myself. Then when I thought it was going to strike, all I wanted to run, to cry to scream… I actually think my eyes watered but-"

"You mean you were crying?" Kazuma looked surprised.

"Well wouldn't you be a bit freaked out if you thought some weird aura spiritual demon thing was going to steal you're soul!?" She yelled flustered. "It'd felt so strange. I knew her body was moving, but I couldn't do anything about it. The strange light; a warming aura was all I felt, but nothing about it felt friendly either…I knew full well of the danger ahead but is a haze, I couldn't help but moved forward like some zombie! Where were you!?" She cried out half angry half shaken up.

"I came after you but something caught me off guard. I don't know exactly what, but I have a feeling it was purposeful. After that I lost you. But on the other hand if Umiko really thinks that little Angler was the real problem here, she might be out of our hair tomorrow."

"Wait it's not? What?"

"No. Someone or something is using it to collect energy. We've seen this before, but the circumstances might be different. Tomorrow I'm going to question a few more people here, but lets convince Umiko we're staying for the fun of enjoying the resort. If she ignores us and leaves thinking she one this battle then we can really get to business. However you did become the lure and she the winner here…ironic no?"

"Are you really going to tease me right –" Ayano's angry words were stopped by her sudden dizzy feeling.

"Woah, you know, as much as you'd love to lecture me and all that, that red aura of yours really bled out in the last few minutes."

"Whose fault is that? Waiting so long to come-" Ayano closed her eyes as she tried to take a deep breath. She felt his sturdy hands on her shoulders. This wasn't going to end well for her track record with her father either. She wanted to vent a long yell of aggravation but she really didn't have the energy for it.

"I'd think we should call it a night."

"Good, it's probably almost morning anyway." Ayano muttered.

"Hey, what's the problem?" He moved her a bit farther from him so he could look in her eyes.

"Nothing. Just aggravated with how this all turned out."

"Trust me, I got a hunch things will get a bit better tomorrow."

"I really hope so." She said.

"Can I make things better?" He asked.

"Really? You're going to start that right now?" She turned to give him a look, when he pulled her into an embrace.

"Wha-what was that?!" She said muffled into his chest.

"See you already feel better. Seriously though, sleep. I'll stay on watch, but I'm pretty sure Umiko was prepared to destroy that thing for her count…"

She let him put her into the bed. "I guess…but I'm not going down so easy tomorrow!"

"I believe it." He said. He wasn't going to argue. In a few moments she was out like a light.

However something seemed fishy. Ayano was targeted and not him the whole time they were sleeping? The rustling bush? The distance the Angler had from whoever or whatever was using it's power…

Hopefully tomorrow they'd find out.

So not all of these will be super M rated...but I'm really hoping on getting more of that in the chapters. If anyone who read the rest of the series wants to see anything let me know, and I'll consider incorporating it! More soon! - xox PurpleRose69